The Light Painting Vlog #5 – Fishing for Light

I had grand plans for this photograph, but plans and reality are often separate. Even with that said, this image served as a learning experience. As the days are growing longer with spring on it’s way here in Minnesota, it is getting more challenging to wake up early enough to make it to my locations before the light floods the scene. I woke up at 5am, pulled myself together and headed down to the Mississippi River in Saint Cloud, Minnesota where I planned to make a light painting of a fishing lure on a rock overlooking the river. I was surprised at how much light was already in the sky. I tried to paint the lure, but found that my flashlight wasn’t strong enough to overpower the ambient light in the scene. It worked a little bit, but lacked the look I was going for. I failed to really take my time laying out the composition in my race against the light. The result of that was that I had to rearrange the image a little in Photoshop. Perfectly fine for commercial photographers, but it always feels better to get it right in the camera first.

Lessons learned…

No matter how rushed you feel, slow down and take your time to get it right.